Unlike writing a novel, writing a short story takes precision and exact use of language.
Why do I say that?
- There’s only about 2,500-3K words to get everything out there that needs to be said to have a complete story. This is especially the case if you are submitting your work to a short story competition and there’s a mandatory maximum word count.
- Instead of having pages and multiple paragraphs to give your environment, character, and storyline depth, you’re now backed against a wall with only a few sentences, especially if you plan to have dialogue.
Fortunately, my creative writing process for developing a short story is very similar to how I setup a novel or even a series. However, if you hate pre-work… this will be the most challenging part of the process for you.
How Dereana writes a short story [FYI, this is kind of an open ended section…]
- I start with an idea. 🙄 1a. I typically get inspiration from my dreams – overactive imagination flies wild at night. 1b. everyday actions like scrolling through my phone in the dark, looking out the window at someone who’s driving by, or taking the dogs for a walk [Next book/or short story might come from one of those – haven’t decided yet]. 1c. Or from seeing a work of art, sometimes my own included. I like to go walk around galleries on my own because there are some pieces I could stare at for a good while and everyone else would be so bored.
- I write down the story in bullet points as I saw it in my dreams or how I envision it going. I feel like doing it this way at least gets the beginning and the end out there, not that it’s stuck that way, but I have something to go off of for my next step.
- Research. Research. Research. Even if you feel as though you’re an expert in a certain field or history, look it up. Trust me, it will help you save face. And, if you’re not an expert, do more than what you think you’ll use. Sometimes that extra mile is what helps your storyline hook.
- Build your research into your bullet point outline where you think things fit and where they’ll help you push your story along.
- Start writing, even if you skip over something, you can always incorporate it in later if you think it will give your story pizzaz!
- Allow your creativity to interfere with your outline… I know, I know… seems backward, but some of my best writing has come from when an idea comes and I let it roll instead of going down the predetermined path.
- Once you’ve crossed all of the bullets off, go back and read it. Is anything missing? Did you incorporate visuals throughout the story? Did you use sensory descriptive language? Do you jump from one idea to another without a clear bridge?
- Editing time! This is my LEAST… LEAST… LEAST… favorite part of writing because once I finish something I’m just too excited to share it with my review dream team that I sometimes miss that I have multiple run-on sentences or I’m using the wrong use of effect/affect…
- Really this is when I should send to my amazing review team, but sometimes it comes earlier in the process… But, I take their feedback and incorporate it into the story.
- Signed, shipped, published? Not exactly… I wish it worked so easily, but take a little more effort than that. More on that for another post.
Regardless of whether you want to write a short story, novella, novel, series, movie script, etc. decide on your steps and follow those through the entire creative process so that even if your story does diverge from the original path, your progress doesn’t. Here’s an example of my “outline” for Sabine, which you can now download on iBooks.
Want a pre-release preview of Seventh Rays of the Sun?
Dereana Murcia 